Was Colonel Sanders a Real Person?
Yes. Harland Sanders was a real man who worked more than a dozen jobs, started selling chicken in his sixties, sold the company at 74, then spent years publicly attacking what the new owners did to his food.
Most mascots are drawings. This one had a birth certificate, a tax file and a very long list of arguments with people.
The colonel part is honorary
He did serve in the army, briefly, as a teenager. He lied about his age on the enlistment form in 1906 and was sent to Cuba, and he was out again within months. That was the whole of his military career, and he left as a private.
A Kentucky colonel is something else entirely. It is a commission granted by the governor of Kentucky as a mark of recognition, with no rank, no unit and no duties attached. Governor Ruby Laffoon made Sanders one in 1935. He was given a second commission in 1949.
For a while he ignored it. Later he started dressing the part, the white suit, the string tie, the goatee, and he wore that outfit every day in public for the rest of his life. He is reported to have not owned a business suit in his final decades.
The jobs before the chicken
His father died when he was five or six and he was cooking for younger siblings by the age of seven. What followed was a working life that reads like several different people:
| Job | What happened |
|---|---|
| Farmhand | His first paid work, in his early teens, after leaving school |
| Streetcar conductor | In Indiana, again by lying about his age |
| Soldier | Cuba, 1906, a matter of months |
| Railroad fireman and laborer | Shoveling coal on locomotives |
| Steamboat ferry operator | He ran a ferry service on the Ohio River and sold his stake |
| Insurance salesman | Fired from at least one sales job for insubordination |
| Tire salesman | Sold tires until the company closed its operation |
| Lawyer, sort of | Studied law by correspondence and practiced in justice of the peace courts until a brawl with his own client ended it |
| Amateur obstetrician | He is credited with delivering babies in Corbin where no doctor was available |
| Service station operator | Which is where the food started |
The pattern is consistent. He was good at starting things, difficult to employ, and he kept moving.
How the chicken actually began
In 1930 he was running a service station in Corbin, Kentucky, on a highway carrying travelers south. He noticed people were hungry and there was nowhere to eat, so he began serving meals out of his own living quarters at the station.
The first menu had no fried chicken on it. He cooked country ham, steaks and vegetables, the food he knew. Chicken came later because pan frying took half an hour, too slow for a roadside stop, and he was not willing to serve it deep fried because he thought the result was worse.
The fix arrived in the late 1930s when commercial pressure cookers came on the market. He modified one to fry in, which cut the cooking time drastically while keeping the meat moist. By 1940 he had combined that method with the seasoning blend he had been working on since 1939, and that combination is what the company still dates its recipe to.
Read the story of the seasoning itself in what are KFC’s 11 herbs and spices.
Starting over at 65
The Corbin business worked for two decades. Then a new interstate highway was routed around the town, the passing traffic disappeared, and he sold the property at auction for far less than he owed. He was in his mid sixties with a social security check of about 105 dollars a month.
What he did next is the part of the story that gets repeated for a reason. He got into a 1946 Ford with pressure cookers and spice mix in the back and drove from restaurant to restaurant offering a deal: he would cook his chicken for the owner, and if they liked it they would pay him a nickel for every bird they sold using his method. He slept in the car on the way.
The first person to say yes was Pete Harman in Salt Lake City in 1952, and it was Harman’s side, not Sanders, that came up with the name Kentucky Fried Chicken and the bucket. By the early 1960s there were hundreds of outlets across the United States and Canada.
He sold it, and then he attacked it
In 1964, at 74, Sanders sold the company for two million dollars to a group of investors that included John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack Massey. He kept a salary and the role of brand ambassador, and he kept the Canadian operation.
He regretted it publicly and often. After Heublein bought the chain in 1971 he described the gravy as pure wallpaper paste and called the food slop. He toured outlets unannounced and told managers to their faces that the chicken was not good enough. The company sued him for defamation. He countersued for 122 million dollars over the use of his image and the case settled for about one million.
He never stopped being the face of the brand while doing it, which is an unusual arrangement and one that would not survive a modern contract.
What is true and what is embellished
| Claim | Verdict |
|---|---|
| He was a real man | True |
| He was a military colonel | False, honorary Kentucky commission |
| He was rejected 1,009 times before a yes | Popular, not documented; it appears in motivational retellings rather than in his own account |
| He started the business at 65 | True for the franchise company, though he had been cooking commercially since 1930 |
| He hated what the chain became | True, and he said so on the record repeatedly |
| He had no cooking training | True, self taught from childhood |
After his death
He died in 1980 at the age of 90. He lay in state in the rotunda of the Kentucky State Capitol and was buried in Louisville in his white suit and string tie. The white suit image is still the company logo more than forty years later, which makes him one of the very few real people whose face is a global trademark.
Related Questions
Was Colonel Sanders a real person?
Yes. Harland David Sanders was born in Indiana in 1890 and died in Louisville, Kentucky in 1980 at the age of 90. He founded Kentucky Fried Chicken, appeared in his own advertising and is still used as the company logo. Unlike most fast food mascots, the face on the bucket belongs to an actual founder.
Was Colonel Sanders a real colonel in the army?
No. He enlisted in the army as a teenager in 1906 by lying about his age, served a few months in Cuba and left as a private. Colonel here is an honorary Kentucky commission awarded by the state governor, with no rank or duties. Governor Ruby Laffoon granted his in 1935 and he received a second commission in 1949.
How old was Colonel Sanders when he started KFC?
He was 65 when he began franchising, living on a social security payment of about 105 dollars a month after a new highway bypassed his Corbin restaurant. He had been serving food since 1930 and perfected the pressure fried chicken around 1940, so the cooking came first and the company came much later.
What jobs did Colonel Sanders have before KFC?
Farmhand, streetcar conductor, soldier, railroad fireman, steamboat ferry operator, insurance salesman, tire salesman and service station operator. He also studied law by correspondence and argued cases in justice of the peace courts, and he delivered babies in Corbin where there was no doctor available.
Did Colonel Sanders sell KFC?
Yes, in 1964, at the age of 74, for two million dollars to a group including John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack Massey. He kept a salary, the role of company spokesman and the Canadian operations. He said afterwards that selling was the worst decision he ever made.
Why did Colonel Sanders criticize KFC?
He thought the food quality dropped after the sale, especially once Heublein acquired the chain in 1971. He called the gravy pure wallpaper paste and the food slop, and he said so to reporters and to restaurant managers during unannounced visits. The company sued him, he countersued over the use of his image, and it settled.
Where is Colonel Sanders buried?
In Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky. He was buried in the white suit and black string tie he wore in public every day, and his body lay in state in the rotunda of the Kentucky State Capitol before the funeral.
Is the Colonel Sanders on KFC packaging a drawing of the real man?
Yes, the logo is a stylized drawing based on his actual appearance, and he posed for photographs and filmed commercials himself during his years as company spokesman. The image has been redrawn several times since 1980 but the goatee, glasses and string tie all come from how he genuinely dressed.
More on KFC
About this guide. USA Food Menu is an independent reference site and is not affiliated with KFC or Yum! Brands. Biographical details are drawn from published reporting and company history. Some widely repeated anecdotes about the Colonel are not documented and are flagged as such above. Current prices and calories are on the KFC menu.
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